There exists a routine and recurrent need for persons to display information to the general public. This need can include purposes of informing others such as to promote a vendor's products or services and provide directions for performing a specific task. Other needs can include the desire of a person to present decorative embellishments or items of personal importance such as pictures, writings, or artwork.
The display information is often preprinted so as to support ease of replication and to allow for displayed information to be changed as warranted or desired. Often, a combination of a computer and a printer is suitable for creating such display information. Due to the ubiquitous nature of computers and the ready availability of diverse software to scan, create, and produce quality printings, there is a growing desire by users of such equipment to have means for displaying their printed works.
In and of itself, printed material is not suitable for protracted exposure to an environment. Environmental conditions often include elements that will soil printed material, such as fingerprints, contamination with food stuffs, and deposition of particulates, thus resulting in degradation of the quality of the printed material and loss of general attractiveness. This loss of quality issue has been noted and prior art attempts made to address means for maintaining the original state of the printed material while further enhancing the ability to display that printed material to the public. U.S. Pat. No. 4,505,059 to Morris is directed to a reusable display for business cards in a restaurant environment. The Morris display apparatus is designed to advantageously present business card information to diners, while requiring use of internal inserts within the display itself to maintain the printed material in the viewing face of the display. U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,126 to Gilman addresses the opportunity to display small format printed material in the form of a hollow tube check-out counter divider having removable ends and wherein the divider resides on one of the faces comprising the hollow tube allowing presentation of limited information in an elongate profile. U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,033 to Sachnoff describes a flat planar display wherein printed materials are captured between parallel faces in close proximity to one another. The aforementioned display apparatuses each offer a means for displaying printed material while offering protection of the printed material against environmental contamination. However, there remains an unmet need for a display apparatus that is simple to use, durable, stable, resistant to casual tampering and offers the ability to easily incorporate additional and integral attention garnering capabilities.